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Rami Radwan
POS2041
Professor O’Neill
November 22, 2017
UBC
December 14, 2012, Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people, 20
of who were children no older than the age of seven. This is one example from many that can be
brought up from the far past to the recent present. As of 2017, there have been 307 mass
shootings in the United States (Robinson and Gould, 2017). Although strict background checks
are put in place for public distributers of weapons, private transactions do not require the same
checks that public distributors have to compete (Martinez, 2013). By mandating universal
background checks on all transactions of weapons, potential buyers, who wanted to cause harm
in any shape or form, would have a harder time acquiring weapons. A universal background
check just means that the issue of gun control becomes more unitary and that all aspects of gun
deals (including private sellers) must run this check or their trades are deemed unlawful. This has
a multitude of benefits which not only effects homicide rates but suicide rates as well. Universal
background checks may be the answer to a tremendous problem growing in the United States as
of present.
Universal background checks can prevent violent and criminal acts both domestically and
outside the home. They prohibit selling of arms to people who have past committed a crime or
have domestically abused someone and those states which do employ universal background
checks have shown a decrease in domestic violence and women deaths by a drastic 49 percent,
meaning that were only half as many cases after the checks were put in place (Gorman, 2015).
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According to Giffords Law Center, “In 2012, a gunman killed three people, including his wife,
and injured four others at a spa in Wisconsin, after buying a gun through a private seller he found
online. The shooter was prohibited from purchasing guns due to an active domestic violence
restraining order against him, but was able to buy the gun anyway because the seller was not
required to run a background check,” (para 4). With the ability to traffic guns to offenders with
violent pasts, private sellers do not have to care about who gets the guns that they sell. Now if
the universal background checks had been in place, this tragedy may have been avoided and
according to the Brady Center, felons who are denied access to a gun see a decrease in crime by
20-30 %. Over all, places with universal background checks see a decrease in overall violent
crime and crime in general, which in turn means less people harmed and less lives ruined.
One other major problem with private distributers and weapons is that guns (because of
